1. There has been growth without sufficient quality job creation: Resource-rich countries remain overrepresented among the growth outperformers.  In order to stimulate quality employment growth, governments should develop policies aimed to achieve economic structural transformation through diversification and development of labor-intensive sectors.
  2. The deeply poor population has been growing faster than the poverty rate: The World Bank notes that the proportion of people living below poverty line has decreased from 55 percent in 1990 to 43 percent in 2012, but with the fast population growth, the absolute number of poor people increased. To make growth more effective at reducing poverty, policymakers should develop and implement policies aiming to control population growth so that the poverty reduction rate grows faster than the population while also enhancing well-paid employment opportunities.
  3. Limited or ineffective pro-poor policy interventions and government: Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, is also the region of the world with the highest proportion of workers living below the poverty line. Most vulnerable people do not necessarily have access to social assistance. Policymakers should adopt, through social protection initiatives, targeted interventions addressing immediate needs (poverty reduction, education, health, food, security, etc.) through four mechanisms.

Read the full article on growth in Africa by Landry Signé at Brookings